Hi Whaley, guys. New to the forum but not to Audis. I am however in my first Cab. It'sa 99 and I have exactly the same problem that you describe here. Have you made any headway with it yet? I;m fine with having to open and close manually for the time being, but want to get the d#%$ thing working.

 

95 Cabriolet ...

I initially had this problem 4 yrs ago and it was broken wires on drivers side trunk hinge where the wires flex. That corrected it worked for 4 yrs and recently stopped working again. This time it was the same wires but on the other side.

The wires are contained in a outer casing which will look fine, but if you carefully cut the casing at the bend point, it is very likely that there are many broken wires inside (~8 wires either side).

I crimped the wires on the first side 4 yrs ago and soldered the wire on the 2nd side this weekend and it is working again.

In my opinion the wires at the trunk hinges on both sides are probably the cause of most top problems. Hydraulic systems tend to be very reliable.

 

I had the exact same, exact circumstances with my '97 Cab. top. It was indeed the wires at the back at the pinch point. I replaced the ones that looked broken, no dice, so I respliced and re-engineerd the placement of ALL of them and it works like a charm now!!!

sometimes wires can be broken on the inside any you can not tell just by looking at it, I would suggest doing all of them.

 

can somone assist with instruction on how to work a manual top? i dont have power option or switch in mine.

 

I am really new to this forum and not sure how to post a link but I just posted instructions on lowering and raising the top manually. I started my post with "1995 Audi Cabriolet", so search that with "top" and "power" and you should find my instructions.
I responded to vmancuso

Oh I think this will work...
https://www.audiforums.com/m_833144/tm.htm

 

My problem is similar to the one mentioned in this thread, but in my case I know the problem is a leak of fluid from the reservoir under the pump. I would like to know if someone can tell me how to remove the pump to replace the reservoir. I can see that it has a bolt with a nut accesible fron a hole behind the rear bumper, but the other end of the pump has a similar bolt and nut just in front of the gas tank and I don't see a way to get to it without removing the gas tank, which looks like a big chore. Can anyone help a new member? Thank you very much. Jose